Developing Liberal Democrat perspectives on education
Join the education debate
The Liberal Democrat Education Association is an Associated Organisation of the Liberal Democrat Party. The members are Liberal Democrats who are interested in education.
Among our members are school and college governors, teachers and lecturers, councillors, administrators, educationalists, people involved in Children and Young People's services, parents - and other people who are concerned about how our children and young people are educated in the 21st century. If you would like to join us, there is a Membership Application form in the Download Area.
Response of LD Working Group to the Expert Panel on the National Curriculum
Headlines
- An overall framework for curriculum promoting breadth and balance to apply to all publicly-funded schools
- Support for diagnostic and sample testing, and internal testing moderated by 'chartered assessors': rejection of old-style SAT-type testing and league table publication of results.
Over 20 million working people will be better off next year after Liberal Democrats in the Coalition Government delivered the biggest ever increase in the income tax personal allowance in the Budget.
The massive £3.5bn tax cut for working people delivers:
The biggest ever single uplift in the tax threshold
A personal allowance of £9,205 in April 2013
21 million working people getting an extra £220 tax cut
Brings the total tax cut for basic rate tax payers to £550
Brings the total number of people lifted out of tax to 2 million.
Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg used his speech to the Party's Spring conference in NewcastleGateshead to call for the forthcoming budget to be a "budget for fairness" and pledged that it would help working familes.
The Deputy Prime Minister pledged that by 2015 Britain would have seen an end to control orders, the first gay marriages and the first elections to the House of Lords.
Fairer taxes, promoting green jobs, protecting your civil liberties - these are just some of the achievements of the Liberal Democrats in government.
We're building a freer, greener and more liberal country - and stopping some of the worst excesses of the Conservatives. Find out more in this infographic.
Conference recognises in relation to the governance of schools:
i) the commitment of school governors to the best education of our children and young people;
ii) the retention of the present stakeholder model of governing bodies in the new Education Act
iii) the stakeholder model of governing bodies of community schools ensures local democratic accountability which is not wholly present in other types of publicly funded school, notably academies and 'free schools';
iv) there is a need to bring the performance of all governing bodies up to the level of the best;
and, in relation to the funding of schools,
v) local authorities must have a key role in determining school budgets advised by their school forums, and in scrutinising all publicly funded educational provision within their area.
vi) the implementation of the Pupil Premium, as in our manifesto commitment, is opening up new opportunities for disadvantaged children and young people in our schools;
vii) disproportionate funding of academies and free schools is unfair and negatively affects all other schools and local authority support;
Conference therefore calls on the Government, in relation to governance, to:
continue to review regulations regarding school governing bodies to ensure that they perform their scrutiny role and executive functions;
ensure all new school governors, chairs, vice chairs and committee chairs participate in mandatory training within a year of their appointment;
ensure all clerks to be accredited with appropriate training for their role as a condition of their employment within a year of their appointment;
ensure that all appointments of clerks are clearly made by the governing body with the chair of governors being the line manager;
change the law so that all schools, including Academies and 'Free Schools', are required to have a governing body including all stakeholders and that no one group can have a majority; to include a new category of students in Year 11 and above whilst also reducing the age limit for the appointment of associate governors to students in Year 9 and above;
secure the application of proposals in (e) to academies and 'free schools' by removing governance requirements from their Funding Agreements and if necessary by reforming or removing their exempt charitable status;
and, in relation to funding, to
reaffirm local authorities' scrutiny roles for all publicly funded schools within their area and appropriately fund them to undertake this role;
reaffirm their statement that becoming an academy or 'free school' should not bring with it a net financial advantage and review calculations to make this a reality;
continue to increase the size of the Pupil Premium but to ensure that schools account for the impact the Pupil Premium has made on raising achievement of disadvantaged pupils, and to allow any school to give admissions priority to pupils with a Pupil Premium
The centrepiece of this issue is our report from the School Governance Working Group, Shared Strategic Leadership. It is the culmination of the commitment and hard work of a group of our members to develop policy on a too often ignored, but vital area, relating to ensuring the best opportunities for all our children and young people. We are particularly indebted to the hard work of the group's secretary, Denys Robinson, who is our immediate past Chair.
In his keynote speech to the Liberal Democrat Conference, Party Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has outlined his goals for the Government and the country over the coming years. He reiterated his commitment to liberal values on the environment and human rights and his determination to ensure a fair chance for every child, saying "every child can do good things, great things, if only we give them the opportunities they deserve."
